Reviews by semihobo:

As always, the Magic Hat packaging is eye-catching. The bottle cap reads, "Buy your Gal Growlers with her Flowers," okay :) 12 oz from a six-pack of Saint Gootz, best by end of March 2006.

Head dies fast, big bubbles, both the head and the beer look a lot like Coke. Dark brown, almost black, pretty thin.

Powerful smell. Mushy bananas and toffee, with wheat and cloves. All maltiness and very sweet, although picking up strong sour apples as it warms.

Taste is mostly sour and generically yeasty. A previous St. Gootz was also sour. Citrus fruits, cloves, coffee, quite an unusual mix of malts. Finish is out of control earthy yeast. Faint bananas. Complex? Yes. Good? No. Too sour and yeasty, needs more wheat malts.

Swirls very nicely in the mouth, the thin body compliments the orange-banana aspect very well. Sort of Coke-ish here as well.

At least the alcohol is masked well in the taste, and the thin body enables it to be put back quickly. However, the oddball, over the top pair of heavy, bland, yeast and sourness is simply not very good, and the finish is narsty. Maybe worth having one, since it is pretty unusual, but I won't be drinking it again. "Funky" best describes this beer, and not in the good way. I am a fan of Magic Hat, but this should go away ... I think I enjoyed it more as mystery #371, but I'm not sure.

Appearance: Pours a dark caramel brown with a thin head that dissipates quickly. Little light penetrates this dark wheat ale. It is cloudy with visible sediment.

Smell: A bit of wet grain smell with hints of fermenting sour apple. Wheat really dominates the aroma with some yeasty overtones.

Taste: Strong wheat flavor hits the palate, along with heavy yeasty overtones. I liked the balance between the yeasty flavor & the wheat flavor, but it turned slightly sour in the finish which gave a slightly strange aftertaste.

Drinkability: I find this an enjoyable dunkel wiezen, but the sour aftertaste limits me to only one or so. The aftertaste is a bit overpowering in the second serving.

Comments: Dunkel wiezen being my favorite beer style, I am a bit picky. Saint Gootz was a nice dunkel wiezen, but not my favorite. The sour aftertaste is not as desirable as with others in this style. It has a good wheat flavor & body, but does not stand up as well versus some of its German counterparts.

Got this as part of a mix-a-six at a local store. My bottle is labeled as "Saint Gootz," and describes this beer as a "dark wheat."

Can't say the appearance is all that attractive since there's a good bit of yeast floating around. Smell is kind of funky, too. But then, I believe that these are just characteristics of dunkel weizens.

The taste is suprisingly good. I might have to say this is possibly the best beer I've had from Magic Hat. Deep and wheaty and satisfying. Mouthfeel is rather impressive as well.

This seems like a filling beer, but one that I would be happy to be filled up by. Methinks I shall be purchasing this one again.

Smooth mouthfeel, medium, even body. Creamy carbonation. Chocolatey / carob flavor that mingles in the moderately roasted character. Bready with toasted crusts. Weak coffee. Crisp and dry edge, and a well-balanced hop snap of bitterness. Herbal, pithy, grassy. Mild, but pleasing, sour/tangy note that melds well with the wheat flavors. Some herbal lingering in the finish along with faded wheat and hint of powdery spice and earth.

Happy to find this treat on tap at the Blind Tiger in NYC (was told they will be closing up the joint on 1-1-06) pours cloudy brownish/chocolate, with a minor off white head, typical lacing, nose is fruity bananas and some minty chocolate, nice. this is a nicely crafted, dark wheat, with lots of bananas, mint, chocolate and other asssorted fruity/yeasty notes. Love the style and this is a version thats well worth seeking out, especially on tap , if you get the chance.

This is from a sampler case I bought at Shelbourne Beer Distributor. I drank it in a pint glass.

Pours a very cloudy dark reddish amber with a two finger head of beige colored foam. The head drops to a ring around the glass, with almost no lacing. Yeast sinks to the bottom of the glass.

Aroma is over-ripe bananas, with hints of cloves, all spice, and nutmeg. Can't really detect hops, but the malt smells dark and sweet.

Flavor is like burnt banana bread, fruity and sweet. The amount of hops for bittering is barely there, giving this a sweet profile. I can really taste toasted and dark crystal malt, also. Flavor is a little thin, but OK. Aftertaste is sweet and burnt.

Mouthfeel is full bodied, with soft carbonation across the tongue. Finish is a little astringent.

This isn't really one I would seek out, but it's not a bad beer at all. Recommended.

Hazy caramel color with a finely bubbled head that rises up quickly, and settles down to a half inch head that extends thick fingers up to the rim of the glass.

Aroma is doughey and yeasty, with nuances of ripe fruits, caramel, and banana. Flavor is rich and yeasty upfront, and morphs quickly into ripe banana and grainy brown sugar. Some pepperiness and clove emerges in the finish, again coupled with banana and some marshmallow. A yeasty flavor lingers in the aftertaste, and is quickly punctuated by the bitter, tangy flavor of overripe banana.

Mouthfeel's a little overly carbonated, too tingly. Not very drinkable for my tastes due to the yeastiness and predominating banana flavor.

Interesting dark wheat beer. Good though. Much better than MH's batch 370 Hefe Weizen. Cloudy amber brown in color with a cream/tan color head that fades into a thin skin-like layer over the beer. Smell is of clove and nutty yeast with creamy bananas and biscuit. There is some tartness in the smell. Taste is solid and pretty well blended, but the same tartness in the smell comes out of nowhere right before the finish and then lingers in the aftertaste. Aside from that the beer tastes of clove spice and fruits. Yeasty toast and wheat tastes come through and balance the clovey spice. I like the mouthfeel, its pretty decent. Medium body and crisp carbonation that compliments the tartness. Easy to drink but I wouldn't want just this all night.

Pretty good. I'm very happy to find it surpasses the 370 by a good amount.

A dark reddish,copper color witha full two finger head.The taste is a sweet hoppy wheat mix witha bit of the usual fall spices.This beer is a "mystery' from Magic Hat,but tastes like a seasonal wheat beer to me.This is O.K.Like all Magic Hat beers this one looks better than it tastes,but it's still not a bad offering.

A bottle out of the Night of the Living Dead 12-pack. Poured into a weizen glass.

Appearance: You guessed it, a murky and hazy brown. To me any form of a weizen is some of the best eye candy that can put into a glass. Head fades slowly, not too much lacing but the head is still about a quarter inch thick as I keep drinking; it's holding on.

Smell: A bit of alcohol upfront in the nose, which is not extremely pleasant, mainly because it masks the banana, which I know is there and wants to come out. Some dark bread and yeastiness. And some sweet clove spiciness.

Taste: Again, alcohol is a bit too strong at first, which is why the ABV seems so much higher than it actually is. Then the banana comes through faintly, with a bit of spiciness and clove. Rounds out nicely with a semi-dry finish, with some hops and slight bitterness lingering on the tongue. Less alchol-burst and more balance and it would be much higher.

Mouthfeel: Smooth and creamy, though a tad slick. Carbonation is right on, though.

Drinkability: Maybe not the best beer to make a session out of, but I'm not one for making a dunkel weizen a session anyway. Worth a shot, but as it stands there are certainly much better examples of the style out there. I hate to say take it to the grave, but I know Magic Hat can do much much better.

I tend to like this style. Brewed as a winter seasonal, with roastiness, oily, and a tad sour. Great dark colour and good roast and wheat aroma. Chocolate malt, well malted, its biased on the sweet fruit side. On-tap at the brewery. Medium mouthfeel, but strongly carbonated.
Not as good in the bottle I had sveral days later which waas grainy, and very coffee ground-like, also significant sourness.

Saint Gootz is a fair enough beer, and probably one of Magic Hat's better brews. It's got some character to it and it has all of the trademark requisites of the dunkle weizen style, albeit it slightly muted.

It pours a cloudy brown body with amber highlights beneath a full head of off-white that holds fairly well before dropping to a thin cap. The lacing could be better.

In the nose, delicate ripe banana and mild clove work their way in amidst yeast fruitiness and a smear of malt.

It's medium bodied and spritzy in the mouth.

The flavor is as the nose suggests, with mild phenolics peeking through the malt and yeast esters. The clove is perhaps more pronounced than the banana; and the maltiness delivers a nice, wheat and toast character with just a suggestion of cocoa. Nice!

This beer has about one cm of sediment thickness on the bottom of the bottle. And it has a great title. To be frank, At first I was a little bit wary of Magic Hat beers based upon No.9 having apricot flavoring in it; but since, I think they are very high on my list of domestic breweries and I rarely find a beer of theirs that I do not thoroughly enjoy. That being said, St. Gootz is no exception.

The bottle opened, the beer decanted into a goblet shaped beer glass, There was a murky quality, and a big smell of wheat. I expected a thin American wheat lagery type taste; and I was wrong. The initial taste is that of a dunkel hefe-weizen the big awkward wheat in the nose twang; but then, there is a fantastic underlying caramel chocolate malt flavors and some roasted flavor; with a sufficiently hopped and dry finish without residual sweetness.

This creates a terrific complexity and drinkability. The mouth feel is medium to full and changes throughout the warming of the beer in the glass. The carbonation is perfect.

If you dont like hefe-weisse or berliner style wheat beers, you will not like this for the very principle and smell, but if you give it a chance, its pretty complex and original.

So much has been said about this beer. Mysterious, Bath 371, whatever. Overall a nice looking beer. I'm on my second, the first I had straight form fridge, second one at room temperature. I feel I am getting a nice cross-section of its characteristics.

Poured pretty aggressively on both pours, second pour revealed a khaki colored head half an inch thick. Tastes a little bitter front to back, body consists of major dried fruits, raisins and dates.

Not a bad offering. Smell is wheaty, with some fruity notes. It is a dark ruby chocolate with a small head. Taste improves as it warms, with a pleasnt whaety maltiness. Mouthfeel is medium in nature, not too harsh. Drinkability is quite good, smooth enough to have another.

My weizen glass fills with a dark gold colored liquid suffused with amber highlights. Looks the same color as honey, it's darker at the top than the bottom. A huge beige head fills the empty space at the top of the glass. After swirling and dumping the yeast, a globulous mass disperses throughout the beer turning my glass into a lava lamp for 30 seconds or so. The aroma is nice, if a bit subdued. I pick up traditional weizen aromas including some soft cloves and banana hints. There's a sweetness in the background. I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised by the taste. It begins with a strong wheaty tang, which gradually gives way to a small touch of clove and banana. It finishes with the strong wheaty tang. The carbonation seems high, but I'm not sure if that's the style. It goes down very easy, so drinkability is high. I was pleasantly surprised by this offering since I was disappointed by Jinx this year. I didn't pick up any of the diacetyl that tainted Jinx. A very nice beer that I look forward to drinking again.

This is my first time tasting this style, it looked very interesting so I picked it up. It pours a very dark brown cloudy in appearance, on the bottle it say swirl the beer to pick up the sediment to enhance the flavor. The smell is great, I smell some banana, clove, as well as some tobacco. The taste is smooth, very nice. I taste some caramel sweetness as well as chocolate and maybe a hint of pear. Overall this is great beer, one that is made for sipping.

Bottle: Poured a clear dark brown color beer with a small dark head with minimal retention. Weak aroma of roasted malt is detectable. Taste is dominated by sour malt and seems to leave little place to anything else except maybe a bit of roasted malt. Not sure if this is what was intended or if I had a bad bottle but surely not something that I will revisit anytime soon.

Pours a very cloudy brown with some red/amber highlights with an enormously puffy light tan head after a vigorous pour.
Aroma of banana nut bread and with some spicy yeast and dark fruit notes.
Flavors of dark citrus and lightly spiced cloves dominate at first and then soem dark wheat bread characteristics take over. Doesn't really blend well together.
Mouthfeel is little past medium with some lingering fruity stickiness.
Drinkability is above average but something just doesn't seem to meld and combine well here, almost feels rushed and experimental in nature. Don't the really well-balanced taste test that I would expect from the style. Kind of disjointed flavors thrown around.

Presented in a 12oz (that's 3/4 pint to you, according to the label) and served up in my trusty Paulaner weissbier glass. Purchased as part of a mixed-bag of singles at Mo's Wine & Spirits in Fairfield, CT.
Has a dark murky brown color, lots of tiny streams of carbonation, and a thick, sticky light beige head that left nice lace behind.
Nose has the typical caramel-coated yeasty grain aroma along with some unripened banana and clove spiciness.
Tastes pretty tame. Decent caramel malt flavor, kinda like a banana-cinnamon bread with a bit of clove thrown in for added tang. Light metallic bite and saltiness in the finish that doesn't want to fade away is knocking this down from a 4.0.
Feel is medium, slightly slick at the mid-point after starting off crisply.
Overall, a decent attempt at the style. Don't see 'em around much so worth a try to see how an American brewery takes a shot at it.